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Friday, January 23, 2015

Soybean workers exposed to the agrochemicals like glyphosate, the
main component in Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ herbicide and other biocides,
suffer from elevated DNA and cell damage, according to a new study.

The
study, published in the journal Mutation Research/Genetic
Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, involved 127 people,
including 81 exposed to biocides while working in the Brazilian
soybean industry and 46 non-exposed individuals in a control
group.

The exposed group exhibited an elevated level of cellular
apoptosis, as well as DNA damage, according to researcher Danieli
Benedetti and his team, which concluded that the now-common use
of genetically-modified soybeans in the State of Rio Grande do
Sul, especially in the city of Espumoso, has toxic ramifications
for workers.

Genetically-engineered seeds, proliferated across the globe by
multinational agribusiness conglomerates like Monsanto, are
designed to withstand dousing by glyphosate and other biocides in
order to terminate insect, fungus, and weed nuisances.

Benedetti’s team focused specifically on Glyphosate and 2,4-D,
the two top biocide components in American-biotechnology farming
culture. Glyphosate is the prime ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup
products, while Dow Chemical’s 2,4-D is a potent herbicide that
was also used in making Agent Orange, the chemical used by the US
to devastate resistance during the Vietnam War.

Last
spring, Brazil’s public prosecutor sought to suspend use of
glyphosate based on its toxic effects. Studies
have linked glyphosate to a fatal kidney disease that has
affected poor farming regions worldwide.

Just last week, Monsanto won final approval
from the US for its new genetically-modified soybeans and cotton,
designed to withstand a dominant biocide that fights weed
resistance built up as a result of the company’s glyphosate-based
Roundup herbicide already in use.

Monsanto
reported an earnings drop of 34 percent in its first fiscal
quarter. The company reportedly
lost $156 million in the fourth quarter of last year due to a
one-time payment made to settle
an environmental legal case.

As multinationals such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical have sought
strict standardization in agriculture markets the world over, the
corporate leviathans, especially the former, have become the
target of considerable protests and demonstrations.

Companies like Monsanto market their own patented
seeds that, given their genetic modification, can be doused
with biocides to kill pests and weeds, and which can jeopardize
long-term health of the soil and the necessary
biodiversity of a local
environment that allows for natural pollination
and, thus, food security.

In May of last year, activists on five continents around the
globe, comprising of 52 nations organized resistance under the
‘March
against Monsanto’ umbrella. Protests positioned against
Monsanto and involving other corporate-food issues occurred in
around 400 cities worldwide, according
to reports.

Just this past weekend, more than 120 organizations joined the
fifth annual ‘We are Fed
Up!’ demonstration in Berlin to focus on the increased
importation of American farming practices – such as genetic
modification, frequent antibiotic injections for animals, and
chemical meat treatments – following the implementation of the
controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP).

Protests have raged most furiously in Europe, where the EU
recently approved a
law that would let its nations ban genetically-modified organisms
even if the EU had deemed them safe. Monsanto said last year it
would not try to get any more GM crops approved in Europe given
the consistent pushback.

Anger and unrest against Monsanto’s stranglehold has spread also
spread to South America. In Argentina,
protests have occurred in resistance to the company’s potent
biocides used in tandem with their genetically-engineered seeds.
In
Brazil, farmers have called on Monsanto and other producers
of pest-resistant corn seeds to reimburse them for money spent on
additional biocides when the bugs killed the crops instead of
dying themselves, speaking to the biocide arms race involved in
using GM seeds. Brazilian soy exporters are also tangling
with Monsanto over seed royalties.

In Central America, Guatemala’s highest court suspended
in September a controversial 'Monsanto Law,' a provision of a
US-Central American trade agreement, that would insulate
transnational seed corporations considered to have
“discovered" new plant varieties.

On its home turf in the United States, Monsanto has worked
diligently with other multinational biotech, agribusiness, and
food production companies to beat down state-level proposals to
simply label whether food is comprised of GM ingredients.

The most recent example came in the state of Oregon, where a
November ballot initiative to require GMO labeling was narrowly
defeated
in what became the most expensive ballot measure in the state’s
history. The likes of Monsanto and Dupont flushed more than $21
million into the anti-labeling campaign, dwarfing the $9 million
raised by proponents.

The company has sued Hawaii’s Maui County for passing last year that
bans the cultivation of genetically modified organisms.

Monsanto’s St. Louis headquarters have been the target
of mild protests, especially during shareholder meetings.

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